306 Yonge Preview

This morning we were lucky enough to be one of the few media outlets to receive first access to Jordan’s brand new flagship store, 306 Yonge. We were given full access to the store, product, and services, and here’s everything you’ll want to know before they open on Saturday.

THE STORELocated in the same location as last year’s All-Star pop-up, the space itself is comprised of three floors. The bottom floor, which is accessible through the Atrium (underground), is a Kid’s-only space. The main floor (street level), is the primary retail space, and also features a customization lounge. The top floor is home to a state of the art training space called ‘Centre 23’. On opening day, the store will open at 6:23a.m., and yes, there is already a line forming. Luckily, if you want to line up, you can do so indoors, north of the store, beside the Pickle Barrel on Yonge. With the exception of this weekend’s launch, the hours are similar to that of a regular retail store, and are available here.

CUSTOMIZATIONThe rear section of the main floor is home to a customization lounge which is fully open to the public. A wide range of products varying from footwear to apparel is available for customization, which is free of charge when the product is purchased (i.e. a windbreaker is $130.00, and the customization is free). Options include area-specific photographs taken by the epically talented @jayscale, laser etching on Jordan 1 Mids, and screen prints of either AJ 4’s, 1’s, or 6’s (get it?) that you can design yourself. With the purchase of a customized product, guests are granted access to check out Centre 23 upstairs. The lounge is only open from Thursday to Sunday, following regular store hours.

KID’S FLOORAs stated before, the bottom floor of 306 Yonge is home to a kid’s-only space, with products ranging from limited-release footwear, to a wide variety of clothing. Similarly to the customization lounge, any item purchased from this portion of the store grants a child access to Centre 23 (and I’m assuming their parents too?). On the footwear wall, there were various older releases that appear to be restocking such as Royal 1’s, Black Toe 1’s, University Blue 11’s, and more. There was also a range of yet-to-be-released shoes such as the “Championship” 13/14 Pack, and Pure Platinum 7’s.

CENTRE 23The third floor of the space is dedicated to training and is very basketball oriented. Designed and built to be a state of the art facility, it is meant to cater to Jordan Brand’s locally sponsored high school teams, Central Tech and Father Henry Carr. The space will be open to the public by appointment only, with the exception of the means of entry I outlined above. The space is home to a full-sized NBA-style locker room, washroom complete with showers, and even a barber shop. To top it all off, the Jordan Standard, which made it’s debut at last year’s pop-up, is back. There are two set-ups of the Jordan Standard that run participants through various defensive and offensive basketball drills. While using the Jordan Standard, guests will also be able to trial some of Jordan Brand’s newest footwear.

APPARELThe store itself is very Toronto-focused, and the apparel really reflects this effort. The clothing that is offered is branded and designed to be extremely geographically unique – basically, you can’t get it anywhere else. Tees with shouts to Toronto’s boroughs and surrounding cities headline the lineup of performance and sportswear clothing that the store is going to offer.

FOOTWEAR AND RESTOCKS
This is probably why you’re here, huh? The selection of footwear on the wall was staggering. Past releases such as the coveted Bred, Royal, and Black Toe 1’s will restock. Future releases such as the “Championship” 13/14 Pack were also on the wall, and will presumably be available for purchase…

Now… there has been a ton of speculation about possible secret and surprise releases. The only information I was able to pull from anyone (trust me, I tried everyone), is that what you see on the wall is NOT everything. The store will in fact have “other stuff” (direct quote), and there will be staggered release dates. This means that everything may not drop this Saturday. This means that everything may not drop this weekend. The exact words that I was told is that “this is a store that people will need to keep coming back to for a couple of weeks.” This is exciting news for many reasons; 1) we will have several weeks to get hype about the store. 2) Those who can’t make it to this Saturday’s grand opening will still have the opportunity to try and pick something up for retail.

OTHER SH*T
I’m assuming most of you have now closed this article by now, but if you have not, you’re in luck, because I have more cool stuff to talk about. The store is massive, and they packed so many cool installations into this building. I wanted to keep this post as minimal as possible, but after going on this tour, I realized it isn’t possible, so bare with me.

One of the most notable parts of the entire store is the collection of sneakers on display on the north wall. Jordan Brand dug deep, and curated a collection of each pair of OG Jordans from their respective years. Seeing all of these shoes in one place is incredible in and of itself, but the condition on most of them is crazy. If this display is anything like the displays in NikeTown locations elsewhere in the world, expect it to change every once in a while.

The space is littered with art, and as far as I know it is all from local artists or creators. Bryan Espiritu created two of his #EspirituSucks pieces for the bottom floor. @JayScale took photographs for huge displays at the front of the main floor. The “Wings” graphic that stretches the entire length of the main floor was hand-painted with spray paint (wow). And honestly I’m sure there is other stuff that I missed, the space is beautiful.

The scoreboard that is a centrepiece in the store was actually taken from Father Henry Carr’s gymnasium. Jordan Brand bought the school a new one, and mounted the old one inside 306 Yonge (so cool).

I’m 1000 percent sure that there’s things I’ve missed. I tried to edit these photos and bang out this article as fast as possible because I want you guys to get the first scoop on what to expect when you jump in line this week. If you have any more questions, comments, or just want more info, shoot us a DM on Instagram and I’ll try my best to answer everyone. For now, enjoy the rest of the photo gallery below, and get excited for Toronto’s new mecca; 306 Yonge.